Black Pearl
by El loopy
Summary: 'As he stood with a trumpet in one hand and an empty bottle in the other and stared at the naked woman that had appeared in front of him, he knew his face didn't have a single thread of 'it was all part of the plan.' Set after the fourth movie. Oneshot.


**This was an odd idea that occurred to me but I just had to write. I think I was contemplating Jack's relationship with his ship and how he has a far more loyal bond to her than he does to any other woman at any point. It was also the same week that the 'Doctor Who' episode came out where the TARDIS becomes a person. As I say the concept is odd if you think about it too much so if you don't like please don't read. Set after the fourth movie.**

Black Pearl

There were times in his life when Jack was bemused, really thoroughly and truly baffled. Fortunately he had a very quick mind and had developed a look that said 'Hmmmm, yes I thought that might happen.' Along with one that said 'it's all part of my plan.' Jack Sparrow specialised in the crazy and down-right insane, but this…was new. As he stood with a trumpet in one hand and an empty bottle in the other and stared at the naked woman that had appeared in front of him, he knew his face didn't have a single thread of 'it was all part of the plan.'

The woman smiled slowly, her eyes swirling smoky grey and ocean blue.

"Captain Jack Sparrow at a loss for words? This is a rare sight." Her voice was light and laughing and he could hear the echo of the sea. Like when he had pressed seashells to his ear when he was small.

She was one of the most beautiful things he'd seen but he'd told her that the first time he'd laid eyes on her more than twenty years ago. She stood before him almost…provocatively, daring him as she always had with skin dark like burnished bronze, and her hair black like the night…like the sails.

"You haven't aged a bit."

She laughed, softly, low and the breath of ocean wind whispered through it.

"Of course I have my Captain," his chest tightened, "I was very young when you first ran away with me."

She spun on the sand (and he heard the clack of the wheel spokes) and, picking up his coat which he had discarded, she slipped it on.

"I'm flattered at your attention Jack, I always have been, but someone else might see and I know how jealous you get."

"Jealous?" He widened his eyes with a sceptical look, the ability to speak returning as she covered herself. "You know me love, not a jealous bone in my body." He gave the trumpet a look and abruptly dropped it. The bottle he narrowed his eyes at appraisingly before placing it in the sand. She was smiling at him, a knowing smile.

"I do know you my Captain. You hate to see me with anyone else." She stepped towards him, almost floating on the sand, and paused an arm's length away with a teasing grin.

"Especially Hector."

A momentary cloud passed over the pirate's face. He narrowed his eyes at her, all joking gone, before turning his back and looking out across the beach.

"You 'liked' _him_ then…as your captain?"

He stared out and watched the waves, controlling the burning inside.

Arms wrapped around him from behind, slipping over his shirt, and heat pressed against his back but although his heart hammered his face remained impassive.

"He was never my captain, Jack," came the sigh of wood in the night. "You are my Captain." Her hands were slipping under his shirt and making it devilish hard to think. "We've been to hell and back together," she whispered in his ear, "You died for me. You protected me." She smiled against his neck. "You love me."

"Always have," he murmured without thinking and turned in her arms, placing his rough hands on the shoulders of his coat that covered her own slender ones.

"The only one," she whispered, pressing herself to him. He gazed down on her with half shut eyes, drinking in the sight.

"Are you trying to seduce me love?" he asked huskily. She smiled and tilted her head closer to his.

"Is it working?" The crack of a sail in the wind. "I've done it before my Captain." He saw again the way she had held herself the first time he'd seen her, the sunlight playing over her beauty and he'd sworn she'd be his.

"You did," he admitted trailing his hands up her neck, into her hair. "But it was under very different circumstances…meant something very different." His words were trying to pull them back, away from whatever…this…was, but now their lips almost touched as their foreheads rested together.

"Are you trying to escape out of this Jack? My Captain?"

Her voice dripped with want and he could hear the groan of ropes beneath it.

"Call me that again and you can do what you like to me love," he half-smiled in jest.

She smiled gently in return and leaned in closer.

"My Captain…"

Her lips pressed to his and consumed him. He was at the wheel with the rain drenching him to the bone and only the wood under his hands as they moved together through the storm. He could hear the crash of waves, the roar of the wind and the smell the sea salt.

They drew apart gasping.

"You're not supposed to know how to do that," he murmured.

"I've watched you Jack, with all those women." The captain looked momentarily nervous. "I can see why you enjoy it so much."

He twisted his head to look at her askance, "You don't…mind?"

She laughed lightly, water rippling against the bow. "You forget Jack, I couldn't _feel_ not like I can now." She shifted closer, slowly unbuttoning his shirt.

"Oh. It slipped my mind amongst the…" he moved closer, "_other_ activities." He smiled seductively, raising his eyebrows.

"I was the only one who stayed constant, you never left me," she pressed her lips to the bare skin of his chest as he exhaled sharply. Rough fingers wound through her hair and under the collar of the coat and paused.

"What's that?" his eyes opened onto hers as she gazed up at him. There was a silent stare, followed by her sign.

"This is from the battle with the Kraken," she drew her hair aside to reveal the raised ridge of scar tissue where Jack's fingers rested. "This," she moved her arm so the sleeve slipped down, "is from canon fire from the navy," she pointed at the lighter strip on her wrist and then a second one on her forearm. "This one is when Blackbeard forced me to turn on the crew." Unfathomable sorrow lilted through her voice with the screams of the crew and tears filled her eyes.

"I was never glad whenever you weren't my captain, except for then." Anger lit up her eyes at the memory. "I would have let him tear me apart before I turned on you."

Lips crashed against hers with almost bruising force as they clung together, consumed each other…

"Jack!"

Jack sighed and lifted his head.

"Ah Mr Gibbs!" He disentangled himself, much to her amusement, to face his first mate. "How predictably ill-timed of you!"

Gibbs looked puzzled for a moment.

"Captain?" He shot a wary look at the strange woman his captain had been occupied with and dropped his voice. "What news of the _Pearl_?"

"Ah, well," Jack spun on his heel and strode back to the woman. "As you can see, the good news is, the _Black Pearl_ is out of the bottle."

Gibbs dropped his gaze to the aforementioned empty bottle lying in the sand.

"Aye…" He looked around at the ocean. "Then where is she?"

Jack wiggled his fingers, "Due to unforeseen circumstances and things going not quite to, shall we say, the original plan, not that is necessarily being a bad thing," he winked at the woman. "The _Pearl_ is," he continued, "not exactly the normal _Pearl _shape."

Gibbs wrinkled his forehead.

"Then what shape is she?"

Jack raised a finger, "Ah!" he said with some satisfaction, and gave a flourish with his hand and a half bow.

"Mr Gibbs," he straightened up and drew the woman forward, "allow me to present the _Black Pearl_. _Pearl_, you know Mr Gibbs."

She smiled like the sails unfurling.

"Mr Gibbs, it's a delight to meet you properly."

"Aye," he croaked, dumb-struck.

Jack grinned and stepped between them. "Well this has been lovely but you really need to be somewhere, elsewhere, that is entirely not here." He fixed the first mate with a piercing look.

Gibbs stared at him, "Jack…she's a ship!"

"I have fully acknowledged that mister Gibbs, although you still seem to be having trouble adjusting to the fact, and she shall be returned to the ocean forthwith," he glanced back at the _Pearl_ who smiled silkily and lowered herself to the sand. "Just not yet."

Gibbs was sure he wasn't the one who was crazy, so, so sure.

"But cap'n what if you…" he looked awkward, "upset her, as it were, and then she goes all ship-like and kills us all."

The _Black Pearl_ laughed from the sand.

"Come now Mister Gibbs, don't be so silly. I will do nothing of the sort. I won't be human you know."

"But right now she is," Jack added abruptly and made a shooing motion with his hands.

Gibbs walked away feeling very much like the plot had really been lost somewhere. As soon as the first mate was out of sight Jack felt a tug and toppled to the sand next to the Pearl. Pushing him to the sand she leaned over him, eyes worried.

"He's right Captain. I am a ship. Doesn't that bother you?"

Jack raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?"

He cupped her face in his hand as his smirk was mirrored on her face.

"The _Black Pearl_. It is my very good honour and delight to finally meet you at last and," he tugged her closer, wiggling his eyebrows, "In such an aesthetically pleasing form. It is a never before and rarely dreamt of opportunity that I have been presented with," lips brushed and he whispered against them, "to show you precisely how much you mean to me."


End file.
